[Vision2020] Check Addresses of "Private" E-mail, etc.

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

J. Willard wrote:

"However, in reality, nothing that is sent out over the Internet is ever
totally confidential.   My sister, who writes on children's Internet safety
issues, Cyber-bullying and net-etiquette, has always said that you should
not sent anything over the Internet that you wouldn't want to hear repeated
on the 6:00 news....."

And with modern techniques of surveillance and snooping of various kinds 
nothing anyone says on the phone, in their bedroom, in a sealed paper letter 
(opened secretly and resealed) is ever totally confidential.  So based on your 
logic, in all of these cases a person should not make any statement that they 
don't want repeated on the evening news.

Just because there are numerous methods of taking what someone intends to be 
a private communication and making it public, does not mean we should give up 
on the assumption that a private e-mail should be kept private, or on privacy 
rights in general.  The logic you are employing resembles the thinking of a 
citizen of a surveillance state.  The example you offer also appears to ignore 
the fact that a media outlet that took a private e-mail of a private citizen 
and revealed the contents on the evening news could be sued for damages, and 
most media outlets realizing this would not announce the contents of someone's 
private e-mail carelessly, without a full examination of the legal consequences.

It is a simple matter to check the addresses of an e-mail to see if it was 
sent privately.  And if someone can't read the addresses, they may just as well 
overlook the word "private" in the subject heading.  

I cannot count the times there has been an accidental or not so accidental 
posting of a "private" message to the V2020 list.  You must be new to this list.

But consider that someone could write "private" in the subject heading and 
STILL accidentally leave a V2020 address that might cause a private message to 
be posted anyway, unless the responder to the "private" message checked the 
addresses to verify!  

So checking the addresses is still the way to go to ensure no mistakes.

Ted Moffett


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